Educating the Community About the Dangers of Stalking
Printable Poster on Cyber
Stalking
(Jan.
8, 2009) -- At a news conference on January 7, 2009, staff of the Family
Sunshine Center joined government officials and agency representatives to
announce plans to educate the community about the dangers of stalking during
January, National Stalking Awareness Month. According to Family Sunshine
Center Executive Director Karen Sellers, “A number of the clients we serve
in our shelter and our counseling center have been stalked as well as
physically assaulted. That’s why we have embarked on a comprehensive public
awareness campaign to educate the public about the dangers of stalking.”
During the month of January, staff of the Family Sunshine
Center will be working through the news media, personal presentations and
other outreach efforts to make the public aware that stalking happens, it is
against the law and it can be fatal. Part of the outreach efforts includes
supplying victims of domestic violence and stalking with a kit that contains
items that will help them document their stalker’s harassing behavior and
develop strategies for staying safe. Those items include small cassette
recorders with cassettes and batteries; canisters of mace; notepads and
pens; stalking educational literature; door jamb alarms and window alarms
with batteries; air horns; and diposable cameras.
“We
want people whose abuser may be stalking them to call and receive one of our
stalking kits,” said Ms. Sellers. “The number to call is 1.800.650.6522 or
206.2100. The public awareness program is made possible through a grant from
the United Way and the U. S. Attorney’s Office, Middle District of Alabama.”
Stalking is defined as one person repeatedly engaging in
threatening or harassing behavior that causes another, reasonable person to
experience fear and dread. The National Center for Victims of Crime’s
Stalking Resource Center reports that one in twelve women and one in 45 men
are stalked in their lifetime. 87 percent of stalkers are men. “Most
stalkers actually know their victims,” said Ms. Sellers. 77 percent of
female victims and 64 percent of male victims know their stalkers.
In recent years, new technology has raised the stakes for
the victim and created a new category of stalking called cyber stalking,
which is the use of the internet or other electronic means to stalk someone.
“Alarming numbers of teens in dating relationships are being controlled and
threatened using simple tech devices,” according to Teenage Research
Unlimited, which conducted a nationwide survey of 615 teens aged 13 to 18.
Thirty percent said they’ve been text messaged or emailed 10, 20 or 30 times
an hour by a partner wanting to check up on them; 18 percent said their
partner used a social networking site to harass them; 17 percent said their
partner made them afraid not to respond to a cell phone call, email, instant
message or text message; 10 percent said they had been threatened in calls
or messages; and 58 percent of parents whose teens were physically assaulted
by their partner did not know it had happened.
Other, more traditional means of stalking also occur
frequently in today’s society, with nearly 80 percent of stalkers using more
than one means of stalking. The Journal for Forensic Science reports that
two-thirds of stalkers pursue their victims at least once per week, many
daily. They may call their victims excessively, show up at work or home or
follow them from place to place. Weapons are used to harm or threaten
victims in one out of five cases. Intimate partner stalkers frequently
approach their targets and their behaviors can escalate very quickly.
Stalking can also have fatal results. Studies related to intimate partner
homicides find that 76 percent of women murdered by an intimate partner had
been previously stalked by their killer.
